What is the Real Meaning of
Easter?

Thanks for subscribing to "The Real Meaning of Easter." Let's look again at an article from a Jewish website called "Why Jews Don't Believe In Jesus." It says,

        Jews do not accept Jesus as the messiah because . . . Jesus Did Not Fulfill the Messianic Prophecies.
        What is the Messiah supposed to accomplish? One of the central themes of biblical prophecy is the promise of a future age of perfection characterized by universal peace and recognition of God. (Isaiah 2:1-4, 32:15-18, 60:15-18; Zephaniah 3:9; Hosea 2:20-22; Amos 9:13-15; Micah 4:1-4; Zechariah 8:23, 14:9; Jeremiah 31:33-34)
        Because no one has ever fulfilled the Bible's description of this future King, Jews still await the coming of the Messiah. All past Messianic claimants, including Jesus of Nazareth, Bar Cochba and Shabbtai Tzvi have been rejected.

Most people who call themselves "Christians" today believe that Micah's prophecy (Micah 4:1-7) will not begin to see fulfillment until Jesus returns to earth a second time. The Jewish website understands this, and it says,

       Christians counter that Jesus will fulfill these in the Second Coming. Jewish sources show that the Messiah will fulfill the prophecies outright; in the Bible no concept of a second coming exists.

But the Bible does not teach that the Messiah will instantly ("outright") abolish all sin and unbelief. The Bible teaches that the Messiah will rule over sin and unbelief, not in the absence of it. Jesus was born during "the last days" of the Old Covenant, and He put into effect a New Covenant, and as a result of this New Covenant, billions of human beings have been streaming to "the mountain of the Lord," and the world is more obedient to God's Commandments today than it was before Jesus was born. The world is more peaceful. The mainstream media and secular academia do not want you to understand this.

Nor do most clergymen. The more perceptive clergy will say that our belief that Micah's prophecy is already being fulfilled, and that we should continue beating swords into plowshares, is "dangerous." They will warn you that we are promoting the ancient heresy of "anarcho-preterism." They are correct (we are indeed promoting "anarcho-preterism") except for two things:

1. This position is not "heretical." It is the core of the evangelical message of the Bible. (The word "evangelical" comes from "evangel," which means "good news."). That's what this website is all about: Good News. Civilization is "good news." Tyranny is "bad news."
2. This position is not "ancient." I just made up the term "anarcho-preterism" last Thursday.

This is our heretical idea:

Jesus is the Christ.

The two most controversial words in that statement are the words "IS" and "THE."

Most church-going Christians believe that Jesus will become the Messiah at a future Christmas, a future advent, a future "Second Coming." But the word "IS" -- present tense -- is the wrong word to use about Jesus being the Messiah. To say that Jesus "is" the Messiah is to say that He already became the Messiah and began ruling in the past. The word "preterit" is from the Latin word for "past," and the idea that Jesus began ruling as Messiah in the past is called "the heresy of preterism." 

All you have to do is read 101 verses to realize that nobody in the New Testament was thinking about events that would take place 21 centuries in the future. Read more. 
 

The word "Christ" also has many meanings. The basic meaning is "anointed," as in "king" (Matthew 21:5 ), e.g., "King of Israel" (John 1:49). Jesus is also called a "Ruler" (Micah 5:2), a "Potentate" (1 Timothy 6:15 ), a "Governor" (Matthew 2:6 ), a "Captain" (Hebrews 2:10 ), a "Prince" (Isaiah 9:6 ), and many other words (some of which we aren't familiar with in our day, like "Horn" [Luke 1:69 ]) which are political in nature.

Many political terms can be inferred:

• Jesus is a "servant," which is another word for "minister," and Jesus is surely the "Prime Minister."
• In his inaugural address, George Washington spoke of "that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations." The one who "presides" is the "president."
• Jesus is our King, our Lawgiver, and our Judge (Isaiah 33:22) -- all three branches of government under the U.S. Constitution.

Our point is that Jesus is the -- THE -- the ONLY -- legitimate king, prince, ruler, president, prime minister, governor, legislator, judge, and potentate. If we simply practice what we preach -- by obeying His commandments -- we will have a peaceful, orderly, and prosperous society. All other earthly kings, princes, rulers, presidents, prime ministers, governors, legislators, judges, and potentates are illegitimate usurpers and anti-Christ.

I know what you're thinking. "What are you, some kind of ANARCHIST?" That's the kind of thing we were all taught in schools run by earthly kings, princes, rulers, presidents, prime ministers, governors, legislators, judges, and potentates. We are never taught what Jesus taught.

Jesus said the kings of the gentiles love to impose their will on other people by political and military force, but Christ's followers are not to do these things (Mark 10:42-45). Mark uses the Greek word from which we get our English word "anarchist." He says the kings of the Gentiles love to be "archists." But Christians are NOT to be "archists." So some folks will say all this talk about Jesus being THE Ruler -- the only legitimate Ruler -- ruling from the right hand of God in heaven rather than from Jerusalem -- will lead to "anarchy." "Anarchy" (the absence of "archists") is scary because it means we will have to trust God. 1 Samuel 8 teaches us that the desire for a visible, physical king on an earthly throne is a rejection of God. God is all the government we need (Isaiah 33:22). Obeying Jesus as the Christ will certainly lead to the elimination of bloodthirsty empires and their Caesars, Pharaohs, and Fuhrers. But it will certainly not lead to chaos and lawlessness (which is what most people have been trained to think of when they hear the word "anarchism" or contemplate the absence of "archists" in the swordless Kingdom of Christ).

Taken together, the two words "IS" and "THE" are branded as the heresy of "anarcho-preterism."

This website maintains that "anarcho-preterism" is "the real meaning of Easter."

In the next few days, we'll look at the passages cited by the Jewish website, above. We'll take them in order, except I'm moving Micah 4 up to the top of the list.